After the War
by TheFirestar423
Summary: The story of what happens the the clans after the Dark Forest battle! Brambleclaw gets his name and 9 lives, Lionblaze and Cinderheart have a big surprise, and Briarlight's sickness is only getting worse.
1. Chapter 1

Jayfeather sat in his den sorting through his stock of herbs. Most of then had been damaged to the point where they were useless. _I'll need more borage, chervil, cobweb coltsfoot and marigold._

The Dark Forest warriors had tried to destroy the herbs during the battle while the other cats were distracted by what was going on outside in the clearing. They did a great job, until Jayfeather and Birchfall caught them. Jayfeather's muscles still ached from fighting them off, but he had felt more alive when he was fighting them then he had had in moons. When you're locked in the Medicine Den your whole life, it helps to go out and get a little action.

Jayfeather remembered the roaring of the blood in his ears, he could almost feel how his heart pounded against his chest when he first scented the dark warriors in his den.

_Jayfeather dashed to the medicine den just in time to find two Dark Forest warriors shredding the herbs. Claws unsheathed, tearing through his stock. The herbs had been torn from their piles and were now caught in the claws of the Dark Forest warriors. Both of the cats, Jayfeather didn't recognize. One was a broad shouldered grey tabby tom and the other was a scrawny white tom. Both were unharmed. They turned to face Jayfeather as he burst into the den. Jayfeather couldn't take them both by himself! As if his thoughts were being read, Birchfall burst into the den and leapt on top of the broad shouldered tom. Jayfeather took the opportunity to pounce on the white tom, while he was still distracted. _

Jayfeather sighed as he remembered him and Birchfall teaming up to fight the warriors. They were both uninjured after their tussle, with just a few scratches. Those warriors were too easily beat! Tigerstar must've sent the weaker ones in to destroy every clan's herbs, thinking that they wouldn't be discovered and wouldn't have to fight. But Jayfeather couldn't have done it without Birchfall.

Jayfeather felt a pang of sadness as he remembered how thrilling it was to sink his claws into an enemy warrior's pelt. _I'd trade my powers to be a real warrior any day, _Jayfeather thought. Then he remembered how his blindness had slowed him down while they were fighting the two toms.

Jayfeather paused his herb sorting and stood up. He starting heading out of his den but had to step over Briarlight who was sprawled across the den, asleep. She was snoring. Jayfeather would've woken her on a normal day but she needed the rest, a cat in her condition after a battle like that could lead to death. He carefully and quietly stepped over her and padded out of his den and into the clearing.

He saw Brightheart lying in the sun, clearly relaxed, he felt bad by interrupting her while she was resting in the sun, but no other cat knew the herbs as well as she did, besides Jayfeather himself. He called her over anyways. Any other day Jayfeather would've been fine interrupting a cat's sleep but the more rested cats there were, the less Jayfeather had to worry.

"Brightheart, help me out and go out to find as many herbs as you can carry, bring an apprentice if you need too. We need Marigold more than anything right now," Jayfeather said.

"No problem. I'll bring Molepaw, he seems to be doing well after the battle," Brightheart replied, than bounded off to go find the apprentice.

He listened as Brightheart stuck her head through the entrance to the apprentice den and call Molepaw's name. Molepaw sleepily dragged himself out of the den and Brightheart told him about what Jayfeather had ordered. Brightheart bounded out of camp with Molepaw trailing behind her. That relaxed Jayfeather a bit. He pricked his ears and listened to the sound of his Clanmates. He knew that most were sitting outside their dens, restless after the fight.

Jayfeather took a deep breath. _What happens next? _He thought. For Jayfeather's whole life he had been training for this battle. It was the whole reason he was born! He knew that if he lost his power now that the battle was over he would have to give up his place as a medicine cat and move to the elders' den. Leafpool would have to take his place. Jayfeather depended on his powers to guide him because he lacked the ability to see. That was the one advantage all the other cats had.

It was getting close to dusk. Jayfeather returned to his den and continued sorting herbs, throwing all the useless herbs into a pile and the good herbs back into their piles with the other herbs of their kind.

Briarlight had woken up and was stretching in her nest. She had put her nest back together after destroying it in her sleep.

"Hello Jayfeather! How are the herbs?" Briarlight asked. She always seemed so cheerful, even at times like this.

"At least half our stock is destroyed, probably more. How did you sleep?" Jayfeather replied.

"Oh fine," she said, "I had a dream where..." Jayfeather stopped listening to her and continued sorting herbs. He couldn't care less about Briarlight's dream at the moment.

Jayfeather turned from his herbs. There was a scent in the air, a sharp smell that stung at the back of Jayfeather's throat. He padded over to Briarlight, where the scent seemed to be strongest. Briarlight was still talking about her dream, but Jayfeather paid no attention and started sniffing her pelt all over.

"... and then, uh, Jayfeather, what are you doing?" He didn't reply and continued to sniff. Jayfeather came across one of her wounds from battle to find that it had opened up and was infected. Not enough to be dangerous but if he left it without care, it could become deadly. _How am I going to find enough herbs to cure the whole clan?_


	2. Chapter 2

Jayfeather quickly lapped down his travelling herbs and raced out to the clearing to meet Brambleclaw.

ThunderClan's previous leader, Firestar, had just gone to join StarClan. Firestar was the best leader a Clan could've ever had. He died saving the clans from the Dark Forest and their evil leader, Tigerstar.

Firestar had been suspicious of Tigerstar from the moment they met when Firestar had first joined the clan as Firepaw, left his kittypet life to become a ThunderClan apprentice. Firestar was right about his suspicions. Tigerstar, who was Tigerclaw when Firestar first joined ThunderClan, had killed the clan deputy, Redtail, in effort to become ThunderClan deputy. In the end his ambitions cost many lives and Tigerstar was killed. But that didn't stop him from wanting to destroy Firestar.

Tigerstar began training clan cats in their dreams, teaching them to betray their own clans, which is where he got his huge army of Dark Forest warriors. After the Dark Forest had been defeated Tigerstar had come to ThunderClan camp to fight Firestar one on one. Firestar had killed him but a falling branch ended Firestar's life before anyone had time to say good-bye.

Brambleclaw and Jayfeather were heading off to the Moonpool so Brambleclaw, the previous ThunderClan deputy, could receive his name and nine lives. Even though Firestar could never truly be replaced, ThunderClan couldn't survive without a leader.

Of course, with a leader there needs to be a deputy. Brambleclaw had chosen his mate, Squirrelflight, to be ThunderClan's deputy. The clan was pretty shocked because they all thought Lionblaze would definitely be named deputy, having his power of not being able to get injured in battle. But Lionblaze didn't seem to mind, he certainly won't react the way Tigerstar did. Or at least, Jayfeather hoped not.

"Did you eat your herbs?" Jayfeather asked Brambleclaw.

"Yes. Squirrelflight is in charge of camp while we're gone. We should be good to go!" Brambleclaw replied.

Brambleclaw and Jayfeather bounded out of camp. The first half of their journey was silent, Jayfeather was grateful for that much.

As they padded along side the river that lead up to the Moonpool, Jayfeather heard a cracking of twigs at his left. He pricked his ears to hear more but it was gone. Jayfeather ignored it and kept walking alongside Brambleclaw.

Jayfeather completely forgot about the sound and got lost in his thoughts instead. It was his first naming ceremony of a leader and he couldn't help but be a bit nervous. He was also concerned about what would be happening with his powers, now that the battle was over would StarClan take them away? _They couldn't, _he thought, _I've learned to depend on them. They can't just take them away. _Jayfeather decided to hope for the best and fight for himself if the best wasn't available.

More cracking came from the forest to Jayfeather's right, snapping Jayfeather out of his daze. Louder than last time. This time it wasn't only Jayfeather who heard, Brambleclaw stopped dead in his tracks, ears pricked and nose in the air, searching for a scent.

"Did you hear that?" Brambleclaw asked.

"There was noise earlier too, not as loud though," Jayfeather replied.

"Come on," Brambleclaw said, and started walking at a faster pace than before.

Jayfeather could smell the anxiety that clung to Brambleclaw's pelt. He had every right to be nervous, the noises from the forest were far too loud to come from a squirrel or mouse. Which could only mean one thing, another cat was following them. They clearly didn't want to be seen or they could have come out and apologized for startling Brambleclaw and himself. Jayfeather guessed that whoever this cat was probably wasn't good news.

Jayfeather noticed that he was trailing a ways behind Brambleclaw, who was speeding ahead of him. Jayfeather was about to run and catch up when a heavy pair of paws landed on his shoulders, pinning him to the ground.

"Brambleclaw!" Jayfeather called for help.

Jayfeather started to panic as the attacker sunk his teeth into the scruff of Jayfeather's neck, causing him to cry out in pain.

Brambleclaw quickly threw the attacker off of Jayfeather and Jayfeather quickly got back on his paws. He wanted to help Brambleclaw but he couldn't locate the two, their shrieks seemed to be coming from every direction. Jayfeather took a minute to let the scents flood his nose, _WindClan. _The scent was very familiar, a tom…_ Breezepelt! Why would Breezepelt be attacking them?_ He asked himself. It didn't matter, all that did was that Brambleclaw was in danger and Jayfeather needed to help him.

Breezepelt was Jayfeather and Lionblaze's half brother. They shared the same father, Crowfeather of WindClan. It wasn't the first time Breezepelt had tried to kill Jayfeather and his brother, Breezepelt was one of the Dark Forest warriors and tried to kill Lionblaze shortly after Jayfeather and Lionblaze's sister, Hollyleaf, had died from blood loss.

After a minute of concentration, Jayfeather lunged forward at where he thought Breezepelt would be. He leapt at nothing and landed in a heap on the ground. Breezepelt hopped on Jayfeather's shoulders, preventing Jayfeather from getting back up again. Jayfeather started to panic but the weight was quickly lifted off his shoulders as Brambleclaw grabbed Breezepelt's scruff and flung him away. Breezepelt fled back to the bushes, tail between his legs.

"Jayfeather are you okay?" Brambleclaw asked, helping him get up off the ground.

"Yes, I'm fine. Sorry I was so useless," Jayfeather replied while grooming the dirt off his pelt.

"You were plenty helpful," Brambleclaw said. Jayfeather looked hard at him with his blind, blue eyes.

"Well you certainly weren't useless," Brambleclaw continued, and began walking towards the Moonpool once again. Jayfeather sighed and followed him.

"It was Breezepelt wasn't it? Why did he attack us?" Jayfeather asked as they walked.

"I have no idea," Brambleclaw replied, "But WindClan will certainly be hearing about this."


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi everyone, sorry it's been a while, but it's been busy with Christmas coming up. This chapters a bit short and not too exciting, but I'll make up for it! I have the whole story planned out and it is going to get good! Enjoy :)**

* * *

"Lionblaze," a paw prodded at Lionblaze's ribs and he woke up to find Cinderheart staring him in the face. Every other cat was still asleep and the sky was dark. It was shortly before midnight.

"Wanna go out?" Cinderheart asked.

"You mean into the forest?"

"No, we're going to raid ShadowClan territory. Of course the forest mouse-brain!" she teased.

Lionblaze and Cinderheart quietly left the warriors den, out of camp and into the forest.

"Can we explore the tunnels?" Cinderheart asked. Lionblaze knew she meant the underground tunnels where his sister Hollyleaf had lived for a few moons, while the clan had thought she had died when part of the tunnels collapsed.

"I don't see why not," Lionblaze replied.

Lionblaze stood up and peeked out the entrance to the warriors den to see if anyone was up. Cloudtail, was supposed to be guarding camp but he fell asleep, blocking their exit. Lionblaze stepped out into the open with Cinderheart following him.

He turned to her and said, "We're going to have to take the Dirtplace exit." She nodded in agreement.

* * *

Lionblaze and Cinderheart entered the tunnels to find themselves at the Dark River, where Lionblaze and Heathertail used to come meet each other every night, while they were apprentices.

"If you can't catch my scent you've gone too far," Lionblaze set the rule. The tunnels were a dangerous place, no cat had the tunnels memorized and they were known to collapse. Icewing had fallen into one tunnel when it collapsed a few moons ago, she wasn't badly injured but it is still a dangerous place.

They ran around, talking and playing. Lionblaze pounced on Cinderheart when she wasn't expecting it. She burst out in laughter and they practiced their fighting moves on each other for a long time. They eventually got tired and decided to just lie beside each other and stare at the sky through the hole in the top of the cave, when they accidentally drifted into sleep.

* * *

Lionblaze woke up to the sound of rushing water. He looked all around him, at the river, and the cave walls. Then he remembered.

"Cinderheart! Wake up it's nearly sunhigh. We have to get bacl to camp,"

"Lionblaze? Oh great StarClan let's get out of here!"

They sprinted out the tunnels and back into the forest. They ran towards camp without taking the time to stay quiet or pay attention to their surroundings. A cat ran out of the bushes in front of Lionblaze and Lionblaze ran straight into him face first. Lionblaze stood up and looked down at Jayfeather, who was still on the ground.

"Jayfeather! I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention and-" Lionblaze got cut off from his apology by Brarmbleclaw , now Bramblestar, as he stepped out of the bushes.

"What is going on here? What are you two doing here?"

"Sorry Bramblestar. We went out for a walk last night and fell asleep, we were just heading back to camp," Cinderheart improvised. Bramblestar seemed to believe it and continued down the path towards ThunderClan camp. Cinderheart and Lionblaze let out a sigh of relief. If Bramblestar had found out they went into the tunnels, they would be crowfood.

Cinderheart followed Bramblestar towards camp.

"I know you weren't at the lake," Jayfeather said once the others were out of earshot, staring at Lionblaze with his blind blue eyes. Lionblaze started to panick.

"Don't worry I won't tell," Jayfeather said. He started heading towards camp with Lionblaze shortly behind him.

* * *

**I hope you liked it. I'll try and post a new chapter as soon as I can. Merry Christmas everyone!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Sorry it's been a while. I've been editing earlier chapters and I'll probably update that soon. I'll try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible but I'm so busy nowadays and I can't make any promises. **

* * *

Jayfeather woke up to a load meow coming from across his den. He lifted his head and tasted the air. No one new was in the den, just him and Briarlight. _Briarlight must be meowing in her sleep again. _Jayfeather thought. Whenever Briarlight's wound started hurting her she would talk in her sleep. Though Jayfeather never really understood what she was saying.

Jayfeather got on his paws and dragged himself over to Briarlight's nest. She was still asleep. Jayfeather only needed a whiff of her pelt to tell that her wounds were getting no better. She had fought well for a cat in her condition but her wound just didn't want to heal. They were severely infected and Jayfeather could only imagine the pain she was in.

Jayfeather turned to his herb stock. He sorted through the herbs and picked out Briarlight's daily supply of herbs. Jayfeather had tried all kinds of herbs on her but nothing seemed to be working, though his selection of daily herbs seemed to help with the pain.

It had been three sunrises since he and Bramblestar had come back from the Moonpool and Jayfeather was almost wondering if he should return. So he could ask if StarClan knew the right way to treat Briarlight's wounds.

Jayfeather dropped the herbs in front of Briarlight and nudged her awake.

"Huh? Oh, Jayfeather, hi." Briarlight said drowsily.

"Time for your herbs," Jayfeather said.

"Oh," Briarlight said with a yawn, "ok."

Briarlight willingly gobbled down her herbs despite the sour taste it left in her mouth. While she ate them, Jayfeather applied Marigold to all her cuts and scratches. There was a huge scar on her back. Briarlight always had trouble with it because it was hard not to open up with all the moving she does. After Jayfeather had finished, they sat in silence.

_I don't get why I waste my Marigold on wound I know will never heal. _Jayfeather knew Briarlight's wounds would never heal and he was worried that she wouldn't survive the upcoming leaf-bare. But he never told anyone.

Jayfeather heard Bramblestar's call from the clearing.

"Let all cats old enough to catch their own prey join here beneath highledge for a clan meeting!" he called.

Jayfeather helped Briarlight up on to her paws and guided her out of the den and into the clearing.

"Two more ThunderClan kits have reached the age where it is time for them to leave the nursery and begin training to become warriors," Bramblestar said, "Lilykit and Seedkit please come forward."

Jayfeather could hear the two kits padding quickly but nervously towards the highledge. Suddenly Jayfeather remembered his apprentice ceremony. Him, Lionkit and Hollykit all being made apprentices. So much had changed since then, once they found out about their powers, everything changed and nothing was the same ever again.

"Lilypaw your mentor will be Hazeltail," Bramblestar's announcement snapped him back into the real world, "and Seedkit, from this day forward, until you receive your warrior name, you will be known as Seedpaw and your mentor will be Dustpelt."

"Actually, Bramblestar, there is something I have to say," Dustpelt said. The clan stared in shocked silence at Dustpelt.

"Go on," Bramblestar said.

"I-I think I'm growing old, it's time for me to join Purdy in the elder's den," Dustpelt said.

There was a long silence before Brambleclaw replied.

"As you wish," he said, shocked. No cat had ever expected Dustpelt to quit being a warrior. He was a loyal cat, and every one thought he would be hunting until his death. _Ferncloud's death must've hit him hard. _Jayfeather thought.

"On with the ceremony!" Bramblestar announced, "Seedpaw, your mentor will be Berrynose!"

Berrynose padded up to Seedpaw, his pelt burning with pride. Berrynose bent down to touch noses with Seedpaw.

"Seedpaw! Lilypaw! Seedpaw! Lilypaw!" the clan chanted.

* * *

Jayfeather stepped into the medicine den. Briarlight's snoring rang in his ears. He had sent her back to her nest after she had the chance to congratulate Lilypaw and Seepaw, while Jayfeather had gone around, checking every cat for infections. There was nothing dangerous. Every cats' wounds seemed to be healing fine, every cats' except Briarlight's.

He stared at her, thinking. What was he going to do, he couldn't just let her die, and Millie would kill him. As much as he hated to admit it, Briarlight was useless. They'd tried the exercises, hoping maybe one day she'd be able to hunt in her own way, or be able to fight again. Millie still came in every day, fussing over her. Jayfeather sighed. _There isn't going to be an easy way out of this is there?_

Jayfeather pricked his ears when he heard meowing coming from Briarlight. Her wounds must've been hurting again. He's already given her daily herbs, but he could give it a shot again. He walked over to his herb stock and started picking out her herbs. _Maybe I'll try something different this time._ He thought.

"Firestar?"

Jayfeather paused. What did he just hear come out of Briarlight's mouth? Her sleep talking was never clear when she was in pain. A thought occurred to Jayfeather, _what if this isn't pain?_

"What's wrong Firestar?" Briarlight mumbled.

Jayfeather definitely had a feeling that this wasn't just pain anymore.

"What about…"

Not all her words were clear but Jayfeather was focused on her words. _Maybe if I fall asleep I can enter her dream and find out what she's saying. _No, that would take too long. Jayfeather wasn't even sure if he had that power anymore, now that the battle was over. He considered just leaving it but something kept him from moving on.

"No… not true… what do you mean… why… why did you warn me… why not Jayfeather…"

Jayfeather was itching to hear what Briarlight had to say and was holding back the urge to shake her awake and ask her what the dream was about. But she might not even remember by then.

"Are you saying I'm going to die?"


End file.
